Here are 23 Walk-Off Thoughts on the Indians’ 5-4 walk-off win against the Kansas City Royals Thursday night.
1. After going the first two months of the season without a walk-off win, the Indians have now won two straight games in that fashion, both 5-4. Thursday’s win came against the division-leading Royals, and it came after the Indians were down 4-3 entering the bottom of the ninth.
2. Facing Joakim Soria—Royals closer Wade Davis wasn’t available after being used multiple days in a row—Carlos Santana singled into right field. Just as importantly (at the time), he made the turn and advanced to second on an error by Royals right fielder Paulo Orlando, putting the tying run in scoring position.
3. The Indians have made base running a point of emphasis of season. They lead baseball in taking the extra base. Santana isn’t a speedster, but he’s been part of that aggressive mindset.
4. Said Indians manager Terry Francona on it, “You talk about hitting being contagious and things like that, I think the base running is. I think the guys take pride in it. And they should, because they’re doing a good job. It directly influences outcomes of games. It doesn’t show up in the box score, but it’ll show up in the win-loss column.”
5. Lindor gave the credit for the game-winner to that play, saying, “That's what won the game for us. Right there. That play. That's what won the game for us. Besides the stuff that happened in the earlier innings, that play right there, I think it won the game for us. First, it gave us the momentum. Second of all, we started to believe. It was like, 'Yes, we're going to score. That run has to score.' The hustle by him -- he's not the fastest guy -- but that hustle by him says a lot. He not only wanted a base hit, but he wanted to get to second. That's important.”
6. It’s the type of mentality the Indians want.
7. Lindor then picked the right time to break out of a mini-slump. He was 2-for-19 entering his ninth-inning at-bat and ripped a ball to right field that got past a diving Orlando—it was a horrific inning for him—that went for a game-tying triple.
8. Normally, Lindor has his walk-up music—either the “Space Jam” theme or “Trumpets” by Jason Derulo—in his head as he walks up to the plate. But as he walked up for that ninth-inning at-bat, he had Michael Brantley’s voice in his head, telling him to just make hard contact.
9. Said Lindor, “I talked to Brantley the inning before, an inning and a half before. He was just telling me, and he wasn't talking about me, it was just talking in general. He was like, whenever someone is going through a slump or struggling, which I never felt like I was going through a slump. I felt like I was having good at-bats. I felt like I was on time. I was just either getting on top of it or getting under it. So, I felt good the whole entire time. But, he was telling me, he was like, 'You can't go to the plate thinking, "I've got to get a hit." To get out of the slump, you can't go to the plate thinking, "I've got to get a hit." That's when you're going to go up and go straight back down. Think about making hard contact. If you make hard contact, that's a plus. Think what you did right and, after that, take it to the next at-bat.' That's what we were talking about. … It's funny, because Santana gets on base and I'm walking on-deck and all I'm thinking is Brantley telling me, 'Make hard contact. Make hard contact.' The whole entire time. I get on-deck, Kippy bunts, I'm walking to the plate. Usually I'm singing my song in my mind. It gets me off the game. I was just thinking, 'Make hard contact.' And I hit it and I was like, 'Yes, I did it.' That's what I wanted to do.”
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10. Mike Napoli followed with the game-winning sacrifice fly in which Lindor beat the throw to the plate. Lindor was tagging up no matter what, saying, “No one is stopping me. I'm going no matter what. It could've been a little closer. I'm going no matter what. I wanted to score. That's the ultimate goal. You get on base, because you want to score. You don't want to get on base and just stay on base. As soon as I saw the ball go up, I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. And the third baseman kind of got in my way. I tried to get away from him. As soon as I saw him catching the ball, I was going no matter what. I saw the catcher pull up to my right a little bit. We won.”
11. Besides, as Lindor said, his mom is in town. Extra innings were a no-go.
12. It was a two-play show of stardom for Lindor, who also effectively hit a game-winning home run in Cincinnati. These big-time plays are becoming somewhat of the norm for him, while providing Gold Glove-level defense at shortstop and hitting third in the lineup.
13. The Royals rarely make defensive mistakes. Thursday night, they committed three errors, with Orlando’s missed dive in the ninth effectively being a fourth. The Indians also benefited from a fifth missed play, when Omar Infante couldn’t complete a double play and Tyler Naquin dropped in an RBI-single to make it 4-3 in the eighth.
14. To the Indians, the important aspect of it is that the mistakes ended up being costly, which again goes back to that aggressive mindset on the base paths.
15. Said Francona, “You don’t see that happen very often. But I also think Carlos putting himself in a position where maybe he kind of helped the miscue, because if you don’t push it, that doesn’t happen. And get himself in a position to maybe not only maybe cause it, but to be in a position to where he can move up, which kind of set up the inning. We have some really good chances, but Ventura’s got such a good arm. He can kind of take care of some of that stuff by himself. They got the tack-on run on the solo homer, but getting the one back really helped. And the fact that they had used their bullpen the previous series doesn’t hurt either.”
16. The Indians’ first two runs were hit in by two of the club’s hotter hitters right now: Lonnie Chisenhall and Jose Ramirez. Chisenhall quietly had a terrific May—he hit .313—and has been swinging the bat well, something the Indians need after Marlon Byrd’s 162 suspension for a failed drug test that revealed performance-enhancing drugs. Chisehall’s RBI single in the second put the Indians up 1-0, and his batting average for the season now rests at .292. Ramirez tied it 2-2 in the third with an RBI-single of his own. He’s now hitting .320 and has arguably been the best hitter in the lineup, along with Lindor.
17. Two walk-off wins is certainly something to lift the clubhouse, especially right after losing Byrd for the season. Said Lindor, “It means we can do it. It means we can do it. We know we can do it, but it's always fun, it's always good to have moments like this, so we can continue to believe in ourself. We can continue to push and we can continue to motivate each other, push each other and know that the game's not over until the 27th out.”
18. Thursday was also the return for Carlos Carrasco, a terrific sign for the Indians going forward. He threw five innings—78 pitches—allowed nine hits, three runs, one walk and struck out two. He also successfully covered first, which is how he strained his hamstring in Detroit.
19. Said Carrasco, “You know what, it was a lot of work that I did for the last six weeks with the trainer, Lonnie. It feels great to see my teammates fighting. We are close. Coming back today and pitching, I tried to go deep in the game. I only went five innings, but I feel great.”
20. Carrasco gave up a two-run home run to Drew Butera and then later allowed three-straight singles for a third run.
21. Said Francona on Carrasco’s start, “Good. I thought he threw the ball well. He made a couple costly mistakes. A pitch to Butera, he’s trying to go down and away and it came back middle-middle. But he got out to I think 77, 78, and that was going got be his last hitter anyway. He looked like he was starting to feel it a little bit. It’ll be nice to have him back—not yet, but—and contributing because he's a big, big guy for us.”
22. Carrasco had a guideline of about 80 pitches Thursday night. He should be able to be close to his normal workload his next time out.
23. Finally, it was a solid night for the bullpen aside from Austin Adams’ solo home run allowed in the sixth. Zach McAllister threw 1 1/3 and Tommy Hunter threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Meanwhile, the Royals bullpen and defense wasn’t itself, and the Indians got to walk off for a second night in a row.